New study: High-quality preschool for poor kids under 3 would eliminate achievement gap

Talk about your cost-benefit analysis: A newly published study co-authored by a University of Minnesota labor economist predicts that providing full-time, high-quality preschool to impoverished children under the age of 3 could entirely eliminate the achievement gap.

There’s more: The study [PDF], published in the Journal of Human Resources, also found that the impact of very early intervention was less likely to fade as the children aged — even if they did not stay in quality care after age 3.

“By age 3, kids from low-income families were doing as well as those from high-income families,” said Aaron Sojourner, a professor of labor economics at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and one of the study’s authors. “So you close the gap by age 3.”

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Every Hand Joined is a Sustaining Network Member of the StriveTogether network. This national organization works with communities nationwide to help create a civic infrastructure that unites stakeholders around a shared vision of the future and a common set of goals and measurements of success for every child, cradle to career.